Postgraduate Course: Curriculum Plus 2 (Cross-cutting themes in secondary school classrooms) (EDUA11291)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The detail of what will be studied is outlined in the different course strand course booklets. The focus of the teaching is application of theory to classroom practice in traditional and non-traditional learning spaces. This SCQF level 11 course helps student teachers to engage in new ways of thinking and engaging in practice as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed for 21st century classrooms. The course enables student teachers to draw on principles of sustainability, social justice, citizenship, linguistic and cultural diversity and inclusion to critique, analyse and reflect on the wider landscape of Scottish education, and the changing nature of a more global educational context.
The four strands of this programme (Critical Literacy; Teaching in Multiliterate Classrooms; Learning in the Outdoors and Philosophy with Children) have been designed to engage PGDE Secondary students in aspects of learning and teaching which will enhance their efficacy and understanding of how to apply these teaching architectures to their practice. Study of these strands will give students the opportunity to reflect critically on the multi-faceted role of teachers in the secondary school in terms of effective and innovative teaching and learning. In addition, study of these strands will address our core commitments to education where we support student teachers in thinking critically about moving beyond their subject areas, and to build a pedagogic repertoire that enables them to challenge discrimination in all its forms, respecting disciplines, languages and cultures within the student population and beyond. As such, this course supports the philosophy of life-long professional learning and reflexive praxis. |
| Course description |
Course content is designed to engage and familiarise student teacher in their role as a critical and analytical agent of change, improvement and development in education, as well as an effective, reflexive practitioner, as they work towards forging their own individual identity as a transformative teacher.
This SCQF level 11 course helps build a strong foundation in student teachers; knowledge and appreciation of the wider landscape of national and international education, whilst developing students; understanding of their professional remit and responsibilities as a teacher in the classroom, in the school and in society. This preparation is firmly in accordance with the GTCS Standard for Provisional Registration and takes full account of the Donaldson Review of Teacher Education (2010).
Students work and learn in multi-disciplinary groups, exploring the implications and expectations of educational theory being employed effectively in practice. As the key part of this process, students are required to read and respond critically and analytically to research based literature, educational policy and government legislation relating to a wide range of salient issues, themes and topics, including inclusive pedagogies and diversity in education.
In sum, this course teaches, guides and encourages student teachers to engage in: reflective and reflexive practice; individual and collaborative based critical engagement with relevant and contemporary academic literature and professional documentation. The overarching aim is to improve and develop students; professional skills and abilities, knowledge and understanding, in order to enable them to become an informed and effective classroom practitioner, as well as an agent of educational change and future improvement.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Flexible |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 36,
Other Study Hours 160,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
0 )
|
| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Collaborative Learning, Reading Groups, Planning Presentations, Micro Teaching
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Formative Assessment
There are many opportunities for formative assessment embedded in this course. Students are engaged in presenting, micro teaching and leading sessions. They receive feedback in written and verbal form from tutors and peers. Formative feedback is embedded within the course in order to realise learning outcomes and to build towards summative assessment.
Summative assessment
Summative assessment on this course is a 4,000 word assignment or equivalent which focuses on the cross cutting themes of education taught in the strands and their use in planning, learning and teaching towards transformative practice. |
| Feedback |
Feedback on this course is given through a feedforward task and through other classroom based activities. Feedback will come from tutor and peers, some written and some verbal.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical and analytical understanding of the ways in which curricular arrangements, theories of learning and teaching, research and equalities, diversity and values are used by effective, reflective and reflexive practitioners in planning to teach and in their role in the wider life of the school.
- Teaching, learning and assessment: Critically appraise and evaluate theories of learning and teaching.
- Curriculum: Critically appraise and evaluate curricular arrangements for the different stages of secondary school education.
- Equalities, diversity and values: Critically appraise and evaluate the values explicit in documents and legislation relevant to and/or about Scottish education which relate to inclusion, additional support needs, fairness and social justice. They will also examine their own professional behaviours and values.
- Research: Read, respond and act critically and analytically in response to research in education (academic texts and articles from a wide range of sources).
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Reading List
Indicative reading
(Strand 1) Philosophy with Children
Biesta, G., 2017. touching the soul? exploring an alternative outlook for philosophical work with children and young people. childhood & philosophy, 13(28), pp.415-452.
Giroux, H.A. (2020) On Critical Pedagogy (2nd ed.) Bloomsbury
Gregory, M.R. (2016) The Routledge International Handbook of Philosophy for Children. Routledge International Handbooks of Education
Hannam, P. and Echeverria, E. (2010) Philosophy with Teenagers: Nurturing a Moral Imagination for the Twentieth Century. Bloomsbury
Haynes, J., and Murris, K. (2011) The Provocation of an Epistemological Shift in Teacher Education through Philosophy for Children. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 45(2) 285- 303
Kohan, W. (2014) Philosophy and Childhood: Critical Perspectives and Affirmative Practices; Springer
McCall, C. (2009) Transforming Thinking: Philosophical Inquiry in the Primary and Secondary classroom: Routledge, Oxon
Topping, K.J., and Trickey, S. (2014) The Role of Dialogue in Philosophy for Children. International Journal of Educational Research. 63. 69-79
(Strand 2) Outdoor Learning
Beames, S., Higgins, P., & Nicol, R. (2012). Learning outside the classroom: Theory and guidelines for practice. Routledge.
Christie, B., Beames, S., & Higgins, P. (2016). Context, culture and critical thinking: Scottish secondary school teachers and pupils experiences of outdoor learning. British Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 417-437.
Higgins, P. & Nicol, R. (2018). Outdoor learning. In T. Bryce & W. Humes (Ed.), Scottish education (fifth edition) (pp.538-544). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Mannion, G., Fenwick, A., & Lynch, J. (2013). Place-responsive pedagogy: Learning from teachers' experiences of excursions in nature. Environmental Education Research, 19(6), 792-809.
Smith, G. & Sobel, D. (2010). Place-and community-based education in schools. London: Routledge.
Warren, K., Roberts, N. S., Breunig, M., & Alvarez, M. A. T. G. (2014). Social justice in outdoor experiential education: A state of knowledge review. Journal of Experiential Education, 37(1), 89-103.
(Strand 3) Critical Literacy
Chambers, J.M & Radbourne, Christy, (2014). Teaching Critical Literacy Skills Through the Natural Environment as Text. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 13(2), pp.120-127.
Darder, A., Baltodano, M.P., Torres, R.D. (editors) (2009) The Critical Pedagogy Reader, Second Edition; Routledge, New York
Friere, Paulo (1996) Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Penguin London
hooks, bell (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the practice of freedom; Routledge, New York
Janks, H. (2014) Doing Critical Literacy: texts and activities for students and teachers New York, Routledge
Janks, H. (2010) Literacy and Power New York Routledge
Olin-Scheller, C. and Tengburg, M. (2017) Teaching and Learning Critical Literacy at Secondary School.
Sandretto, S. (2011) Planting Seeds: Embedding Critical Literacy in Your Classroom Programme Wellington, NZ NZER Press
(Strand 4) EAL
Cook. S & Susan P, Planning for Bilingual Learners Year 9 Geography: The EU and Italy in Planning for Bilingual Learners (Stoke: Trentham Books Ltd, 2000), pp.79-98.
Cummins, J. Bilingualism and Minority-Language Children (1981) Toronto: The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1981).
Maggie Gravelle, Conclusion in Planning for Bilingual Learners (Stoke: Trentham Books Ltd, 2000), pp.159-168.
bell hooks, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope (London: Routledge, 2003).
Leung, C. (2007). Integrating school-aged ESL learners into the mainstream curriculum. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.), The international handbook of English Language Teaching (pp. 249-269). New York: Springer.
Kathleen McMillan, "Changing Identities: Intercultural Dimensions in Scottish Educational Contexts" in Language and Intercultural Communication, v8 n2 p119-135 May 2008.
Shor. I. "What Is Critical Literacy" in Critical Literacy in Action, (1999) ed. Ira Shor and Caroline Pari Boynton/Cook Publishers, pp.1-30).
Tamara L. Jetton, E Savage-Davis, Baker,M. (2009) Developing Culturally Responsive Teacher Practitioners Through Multicultural Literature in Affirming Students Right to Their Own Language ed. Scott, Straker & Katz . Abingdon: Routledge, pp.219-231.
Department for Education and Skills (2005), Aiming High: Guidance on the assessment of pupils learning English as an additional language. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1.This course prepares students to engage critically and analytically with current areas of development in learning and teaching in secondary schools and with broader issues and problematised areas in education.
2.Students on this course work collaboratively to design creative and effective approaches to meet the challenges of working with children and young people in the 21st Century classroom.
3.Students are taught to reflect, using appropriate theoretical models of reflective practice on their own practice and their own situated thinking; and to respond reflexively in order to improve learning and teaching. This often means making in-practice decisions in complex situations
4.Student teachers on this course develop the necessary skills to communicate effectively with a range of audiences from children to their professional colleagues, parents and other adults with professional responsibilities for children and young people, adapting communication appropriately to context and purpose.
5. Students must demonstrate their ability to use research papers which include graphical or numerical data to support their understanding of educational issues and to interpret and uses this data accurately and critically.
6.Student teachers on this course work collaboratively with peers and tutors. They learn to take the initiative, to demonstrate leadership and to take responsibility for their professional development as a teacher. Through a blend of tutorial tasks and their practice experience students develop the ability to think their way critically through complex , diverse perspectives and make ethically sound and well informed decisions which stem from their developing understanding of intra and inter personal skills as well as their sound professional knowledge of learning and teaching. |
| Keywords | PGDE secondary behaviour literacies outdoor learning EAL Philosophy for Children |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Mary Bovill
Tel: (0131 6)51 4837
Email: Mary.Bovill@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Rosie Fitzmaurice
Tel:
Email: rfitzmau@ed.ac.uk |
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